Corbin Bernsen Interview

Well known for his Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated performance as Arnie
Becker in L.A. Law—and as Henry Spencer in Psych—Corbin
Bernsen also has made a name for himself as writer, director, and producer
of independent films.

His newest film, Rust, is about a pastor in the midst of a midlife
crisis of faith who goes back to his hometown and finds hope where
he least expects
it. James Moore (played by Corbin Bernsen) is a former
pastor who returns home to learn that a family new to the area died
in a mysterious fire. What’s more, his old friend from childhood
is implicated in the murder. Convinced of his friend’s innocence,
Moore sets out to uncover the truth and rediscovers his own lost faith.
RUST is an uplifting drama with important life themes about faith,
family, loyalty, the past—and understanding the ties that bind
a community together.

You have a degree in playwriting, so I’m curious when you decided
you wanted to write movies as well as act in them.

I’ve been writing films for years and years. I usually always thought
about myself, whether it’s a role that I play, or it sort of comes
from me and my world. Usually it’s a character that I can play. I
only became serious about doing it as a business, if you will, in the last
ten years or so. I’d written stuff before, but the idea was to maybe
sell a screenplay like anybody else. I was acting enough to get by. I started
thinking more about what the subject matter should be, who I’m writing
for, what kind of movie I want to make in the last ten years.

I think it’s
pretty cool how you haven’t limited yourself
in your career either. You’ve made horror movies, and now you’re
making a faith-based movie like Rust. I’m sure all your movies are
special in their own way, but Rust sounds like it’s a more personal
movie for you.

It is. I will say this
when looking back at some of my movies that I imagine the faith based,
family,
Christian audience might look at and go, “Ooh.
What was he doing?” I would argue that even within those films, even
though there might be language or situations that people might not like,
I’ve always been attracted to central
characters who are looking for some sort of redemptive value in their life.
Ultimately, I think that’s what stories turn on. All stories, really.
Whether it’s somebody coming to terms with a death, or somebody falling
in love, or the redemptive value of saying I’m not going to be alone,
I choose to be with somebody—even within the weirdest romantic comedy
. . . even all the stupid, yet very funny, teen comedies that are gross
. . . if you really look at the central character, there’s this underdog
that wants to be accepted. Good movies have characters seeking redemptive
values. It’s a little easier to tell the tale when you put it into
the genre of family and faith. It becomes more clear. I’m enjoying
being able to write directly to the subject and not have to know that it’s
there, but write around it. Rust doesn’t pull any punches.

I like a line
from the movie that says, “We don’t know what
the plan is, we just have to have faith in the plan.” Is that the
message you want to leave people with when they watch Rust?

That is the entire
crux of the film. For my character, James Moore, the lesson he’s
learned and thus the lesson he passes on, and I guess a lesson from the
story---though I don’t write lessons, I just write
people. What comes will be—is that in the end we don’t know
what the journey is. We really don’t. When we look up into the infinite
sky at night, we just don’t know. Beginning of time and end of time.
They are concepts larger than us. The only thing we can do in that chasm
of chaos of non information (chuckles), things that can’t be explained
by science, is put our faith in something greater. And really that’s
what I’m talking about. The plan, the journey, this blessed thing
that we’re on has reason and purpose. We don’t know when and
where we’re going to find it. It may be in this life, it may be in
the next. It may not be in any of it. Who knows where? I do know that when
I went to write Rust, I thought I was writing a movie about faith,
and I found out that in the writing of the movie and doing these interviews
with people like you I’m learning more about me and those things
which I sought than I did in writing the screenplay itself.

When you started to write the movie did you decide, this is what I want
to say? It sounds more like it was the story.

Story and character.
What does this character want? What is this character seeking? What is
this character
missing in his life? What will come will
come. Storywise I know my story points. I suppose you could make the main
character a fireman or you could make it the devil (laughs). It doesn’t
really matter. Then after you have the story points, you add the color,
this
world that
you place it in. I do write rather free form. I’m not a heavy duty
outliner. I know my story beats. I know my ending, which is always important
. . . though often that changes during the course of the movie. The ultimate
ending is there, but how you get there exactly, what the ending is informed
with obviously comes from the writing.

Did the ending change for Rust?

No, I knew that in
Rust what I wanted to get to was whatever happened---I don’t
want to give away the ending because I want people to see the movie—but
what transpires is evidence of God that this man had thought was no longer
speaking to him. I knew the turn of events at the end, his
discovery, the purpose for this tragedy is a testament of God saying, I’m
here. Just listen a little louder.

This isn’t the first Christian movie you’ve
acted in. I remember seeing you in Judgement back in the day.

Yeah. It’s easy
and it’s helpful to be able to sell these
movies based on a name, a label. I know it’s important,
and it helps sell it, and you’ve gotta have a place on the Blockbuster
shelf, as they say. By the way, I didn’t write a Christian movie.
I wrote a movie that Sony picked up and put in its Christian genre.
I wrote
a movie about a guy who’s having a mi-life crisis of faith. I wanted
to personally write about mid-life crisis. That was what I was trying to
explore to some degree. I just didn’t want to do the red Ferrari
story. I don’t like to think of them as Christian movies. I like
to think of them as stories that have these Christian characters.

A lot of the
directors I’ve been talking to lately, they really
don’t like that label. They want to be known as good film makers
that tell good stories. They do recognize like you do that the label is
necessary to sell, but . . . yeah. I get what you’re saying.

You know, it ultimately
is that. You just don’t write to it. I think
you just write your movie. It is important, what I do want to do is make
sure it has faith messages in there. I could tell you Rocky is
a message of faith. Really. Isn’t it? A wonderful message of faith.
But it doesn’t have direct up faith characters. I don’t mind
. . . not only don’t I mind, I want to employ those characters in
my stories. I think that having people of faith is part of the fabric of
the characters
within a story. I don’t think it’s represented much. Much like
you could say the Asian character isn't represented or the African
American or Hispanic. If you look at the fabric of our society, there are
many, many components that are with us daily side by side around the water
cooler. We now make a great effort to make sure African Americans are represented,
and I think there’s a great push to make sure Asian characters are
represented well, as they’re usually somewhat stereotyped. We make
a push to make sure people of different sexual orientations are represented.
But I don’t see a push to make sure that people with a view of faith
are represented in stories, and I think that’s a piece of the fabric
that’s missing in storytelling. Even the show L.A. Law that I was
on. One of the best things about that show was you had somewhat of a representation
of many kinds of people and
ideologies . . . pro choice, anti-abortion . . . everything. Even in the
lawyer group ourselves you had me as this guy having what he will have,
you know. But even in that you didn’t see the representation of somebody
of faith. You could say Christian, but we didn’t have that in there.
We did later. We added a character who was a Christian. I think it was
a rather interesting addition to the cast. And she went straight in my
face, which was all the more interesting.

Would it be
too personal to ask you what you believe personally about God and faith,
or is that
something
you think you’ve covered already?

I don’t mind
discussing it. I mean, my hesitation only comes from a misinterpretation
of people who think I ride the fence. What I say is
. . . and I’m working on this. I don’t know if it’s going
to be a book, or a set of letters, but I call myself a man in the middle.
Which is what I really think most people are. It doesn’t mean we
ride the fence. Certainly in my belief in God I don’t ride the fence,
but I’m open. I investigate all sides of the argument. I’m
open to understanding all sides, which is something I think is lacking
in the world. I try not to put definition to me. To answer your question
more directly, first and foremost I don’t like to put definition.
I don’t like to call myself something. People ask me, are you a Christian?
When did you come to Christ? I say, I'll tell you what. You ask me a series
of questions, you check your little boxes, and you determine what I am.
I’ve been married for twenty-two years to my wife. I have four wonderful
children, have an incredible marriage going on twenty-three years. I try
to donate to charity. I help people across the street when they’re
in need (chuckles). I do all the things that are good things in life.

Here’s the thing.
I believe in God. What I believe in God and what God is is a much longer
conversation. I believe in something greater and
bigger than many Christians that I come across who have definitions of
what God is. I again, take off all descriptions. I’m not looking
for the man with the white beard and the pearly gates. I think God is something
that’s larger, greater, more infinite, glorious, all loving, all
encompassing . . . it’s the mystery of the sky that goes beyond us
and on and on, and investing into that mystery. Some people say, why do
you
call it God? I say that’s what God is to me. God is this largeness,
and I believe that God is great good. I believe that this journey, this
experience, is good. I believe it’s God’s journey. People ask
me about Christ, what do you think there? That really tells you if you’re
a Christian. I say, well, again, I believe that Christ did come to this
earth, was the Son of God, the representation of God, and there have
been other representations along the way. Like in prodigies . .
. I mean we all are representations, but some show it more. You know Martin
Luther King, Mother Theresa, certain people jump out. There are some people
who
are
more in His likeness than others. At the end of the day, God in His infinite
wisdom needed to bring somebody at that point in time when we were just
civilizing as man. We were coming out of these sort of creature kind of
habits of ours to a civilized society, and it was important to send somebody
to earth to say, Look, this is the way to think and believe and act and
treat one another. Let’s not beat each other with clubs over the
head. Let’s turn our attention to the poor, to the weak. I think
it was important that somebody come along at that time and say this is
what civilized man is going to be. This is what we should be. And I think
it was important that man become a martyr and to be taken from this earth.
And I think it’s more important for God to prove His infinite power,
if you will, to resurrect that. You can do all that . . . which you can
say is Martin Luther King, or John Lennon, or whoever you want to think
it is. But in this case He said, I need to do one more thing. I need to
resurrect this person from what appears to be a definite end. And in that
resurrection,
in that miracle of the resurrection, is where you really see the work of
God. Through that, through Christ, through that sacrifice and through
that resurrection, we get closer to God if we can simply invest in the
belief of that. And then we become the children that God would want us
to be.

Again, you can check your boxes and tell me what I am. For some
people outside the realm this could be a purely philosophical conversation.
We don’t have to be talking about it as religion. Is it philosophically
possible for something grander and greater, beyond nature, that which created
nature, larger . . .

You know, I look back
at my childhood, and you know there is no beginning and no end. Scientists
can explain the edge
of the universe, and I go, then what? (Laughs.) I keep going further. In
that mystery is where I see God. In that mystery is where I say, can there
be a resurrection of Christ? I say, why not? I mean come on. That’s
a small leap for me when I keep looking at the night sky and it goes on
forever. You can’t put your head around that. I can put my head around
the resurrection. I mean, I’ve seen evidence, physical evidence of
people dying and coming back to life in our generation. So I believe in
the story that’s been passed on, and I believe in the man that was
here and the teachings of the man. I think it’s sort of a test. If
you can commit to that, take that leap of faith then you get closer to
God. That’s sort of my review on it.

I had somebody explain
it to me with all the passion in their gut saying, “You’ll
still see that it’s through Christ that you’ll be saved.” And
I think, isn’t that what I’ve been saying? Sometimes I get
upset that people want to hear it in a way that’s by rote
and what they've heard a thousand times. I’m saying to a new
generation of people to believe it in your own way, in your own words.
And ultimately that brings you closer to God. I also don’t go out
and pound people’s doors saying you must, you must, you must. I sort
of live by example.

That’s
so much better than pounding someone over the head with something.

Well, my wife is not
in the same place as I am. I’m not saying she’s
anti, but she sort of lives very much in the moment, and we were talking
the other day and she just noticed in the last six months a calmer me.
A more loving me. Even the way I treat my pets. Anything, everything. Seriously.
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C.J.
Darlington is the award-winning authof of Thicker than Blood,
Bound by Guilt, and Ties that Bind. She
is a regular contributor to Family Fiction
Digital Magazine and NovelCrossing.com.
A homeschool graduate, she makes her home in Pennsylvania
with her family and their menagerie of dogs, a cat, and a paint horse named
Sky. Visit
her online
at her
author website. You can also look
her
up
at Twitter and Facebook.